Introduction

Congenital heart disease (CHD) consists of one or more morphological defects of the heart or great vessels, present at birth. Most CHD are inherited and the incidence varies depending on breed and gender.

Objective

To evaluate the prevalence of CHD in a veterinary teaching hospital cardiology service canine population.

Methods

A retrospective study was conducted between January 2000 and December 2011. Dogs that had been diagnosed with CHD were identified and information on history, physical and auxiliary exams were gathered.

Results

In this period, 17,721 dogs were admitted to the cardiology service, and 233 (1.31%) had CHD. Thirty-four records were excluded because of incomplete data and 199 were included in the study. Among these, 146 dogs (73.37%) had only one congenital defect, 32 (16.08%) had two associated defects, and 21 (10.55%) had more than two defects, with a total of 246 defects. The most common were persistent ductus arteriosus (PDA; 28.05%), pulmonary stenosis (PS; 19.11%) and subaortic stenosis (SAS; 10.98%), followed by aortic stenosis (AS; 10.57%), ventricular septal defect (VSD; 7.32%) and tricuspid dysplasia (TD; 6.91%). The most affected breeds were Poodle (19.10%), German shepherd (8.54%) and undefined/mixed breed accounted for 16.08% of the cases. Females (57.79%) predominated over males.

Conclusion

These results are similar to what is reported in the literature, what supports the known breed and gender predisposition and can be used as a considerably precise and early differential diagnosis.